Scottish Book Trust reveals New Writers Award winners

Scottish Book Trust has revealed the winners of this year’s New Writers Awards, each of whom will receive £2,000 to help with their career.

The scheme, which is supported by Creative Scotland, was designed to help writers who have not yet published a full-length book. The winners – whose works range from poetry and fiction to children’s and YA – receive mentoring, PR training and the opportunity to show their work to agents, as well as the prize money.

“We are delighted to welcome the next batch of New Writers Awardees,” said Marc Lambert, c.e.o. of Scottish Book Trust. “Writing can be a challenging process, and the New Writers Awards provides one-on-one support for current projects, as well as guidance for the future.”

Three of the winners are poets, two write children’s and YA fiction, five write fiction or narrative non-fiction and two, whose prizes are provided by the Gaelic Books Council, write in Gaelic. One more writer was given The Callan Gordon Award, open to short story writers and poets between the ages of 18 and 35.

Alan Bett, head of literature, languages and publishing at Creative Scotland, said: “The New Writers Awards develop our emerging literary talent through tailored mentoring and training at this crucial stage in their career, and in doing so contributes to the strength of literature in Scotland.”

Previous winners include Graeme Macrae Burnet, Olga Wojtas and Claire Askew.

A showcase of the winners’ work will take place tomorrow (18th January) in Edinburgh.

This year’s winners in full:

Poetry

Aileen Ballantyne

Rhona Warwick

Duncan Stewart Muir

Children’s and Young Adult

Anne Hughes

Fiona McKeracher    

Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction

Samantha Clark         

Beth Cochrane                                   

Mary Fitzpatrick         

Nadine Aisha Jassat                          

Eilidh McCabe

Gaelic

Alistair Paul

Calum MacKinnon

The Callan Gordon Award

Sasha Thanisch